MELVILLE, Herman.

£27,500 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. First US edition, first issue binding. This is the first appearance of the novel under its famous title, and the first appearance of the epilogue and 35 passages that were omitted from the slightly earlier British edition.To protect its international copyright, Moby-Dick was first issued in London earlier the same year, set from the New York sheets and titled The Whale. On publication, the novel was a "complete practical failure, misunderstood by the critics and ignored by the public; and in 1853 the Harpers' fire destroyed the plates of all [Melville's] books and most of the copies remaining in stock" (DAB, vol. 12, p. 523). It was only from the early 20th century that the work found widespread acclaim as one of the greatest of novels, and perhaps the greatest tale of sea.Bindings in the first issue have the publisher's device on the covers and appear, without priority, in black, blue, grey, green, purple-brown, red, or slate-coloured cloth. It was the custom of American publishers during this period to use cloths of various colours for window display.

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